PITTSBURGH — Despite over 300 yards of passing on the night, Seneca Valley could not produce enough points in Friday night's Northern Eight Conference loss to Central Catholic.

The 38-14 loss to the Vikings leaves Seneca Valley at 3-4 overall and 3-3 in conference.

“We gave up a couple big run plays early on. They're very good,” Raiders coach Dave Vestal said. “We were trying to match their physicality.”

Things didn't start out well for the Raiders, as Central Catholic's Ronnie Jones opened with a 68-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game. Jones would be a menace to the Raiders defense all night, rushing for 250 yards on 13 carries and three touchdowns.

Seneca Valley recovered in the first quarter after forcing Jones to fumble on the Vikings' own 21. That set up a pass on the next play from quarterback Jack Cook to senior wide receiver Ben Bachik for the score, tying the score to end the first.

Cook was 18 for 30 on the night for 326 yards and two touchdowns.

“A couple of times when we were trying to move the sticks, we came up maybe a foot or a half a foot short. We need to make it obvious we're going to get that first down,” Vestal said. “Those are tough calls.”

The second quarter turned into a nightmare for the Raiders however. Jones again found breathing room early in the quarter for an 84-yard touchdown sprint.

After an errant kick on the Raiders' following drive gave the Vikings good field position, Jones scampered for a 26-yard scoring run. Then to make things harder, Vikings senior Gunnar Frerotte ran for 26 yards for a touchdown of his own on the next Central Catholic drive.

Cook tried to rally the offense on the Raiders' final drive of the half, connecting for one pass good for 29 yards with just seconds to go and then going for a Hail Mary in the endzone in the final play of the half.

The pass, caught by Bachik was good for 32 yards. However Bachik fell at the one-yard line as time expired.

The Raiders couldn't produce on the ground, rushing for a total of -15 yards. They also only had three first downs in the second half.

After Central Catholic junior J.J. Younger rushed for an 18-yard touchdown during garbage time in the fourth quarter, Seneca Valley showed it wouldn't go down without a fight.

On the first play of the Raiders' drive with 6:23 left in the game, Cook found wide receiver Mark Smith for a 74-yard touchdown pass.

Seneca Valley could not recover an onside kick attempt and Central Catholic kept it on the ground for the rest of the game.

“Keeping our defense off the field and controlling the clock was certainly part of our game plan. We just couldn't quite do it,” Vestal said.

Central Catholic defensive coordinator Dave Fleming said the plan all night was to be aggressive on defense.

“It was a good group effort,” Fleming said. “We executed well.”

Fleming said the defense was more focused on stopping Seneca Valley's run game.

“Once we got a lead, we felt we could change some things up on defense,” he said.

Vestal said he hopes to recover from the loss and finish the season strong.